Peter Pan, and the realization of self

believe in the student

at the heart,

the most real can reveal itself,

there the student can unleash the power within,

with the right structure and encouragement

each student can release the best 

that aches to be free from debilitating doubt, 

that craves to just be,

vision and choice meet opportunity,

and ability revealed renews the world,

a play can be one scenario 

of this fundamental interaction of self with possibility,

a young person fights off doubts

and becomes the actor who owns the stage,

the artist who creates the stage

or creates the costume and prop that shouts the character,

the designer and the executor of the lights

who help reveal the story, the telling,

the choreographer who knows the language of body with movement

and teaches how what needs to be said is said with the physical,

this winter, when doubt and fear 

discourage the best within us,

I am blessed to work with a director

who believes so much in the kids

that my enormous belief in them 

seems lesser by comparison,

I am blessed to work with an artist,

a set, prop, and costume designer,

who sees the more perfect world 

to which we might go,

and helps students see it, too, 

and find the paths to get there,

at the heart of our school

is a belief in the power

that each person can live

if he, if she, can but find the way 

to live that power,

to refuse to be lesser,

the teacher then mostly a helper

to the learner who can remake the world,

when that of God within is released,

something new is born, something old is reborn,

and we are transformed:

the world is made anew,

and it is right,

I love any school that helps its students

find their way into the power

that should be their birthright,

this mid-winter the play is the thing

that enables many of our kids

to break through to realizing how amazing each is,

and therefore making it so,

individuals click together as if into a jigsaw puzzle,

the whole works,

each individual piece is a vital part of a wonder,

the play is the thing, 

and what a wonderful thing it was.

by Henry H. Walker

February 11, ‘17